Problem Solving
by Shade
Summary: Keitaro Urashima has a problem. He's about to receive some guests who think he's the solution to all of their problems.
1. Prologue I: Planting the Seed

Problem Solving  
by Shade

Disclaimer 101: Love Hina created by Ken Akamatsu, all rights reserved by him and his publishers.

Fusion of the Anime through ep. 25 and the manga through the end of vol 9

Synopsis:

Tsuruko Aoyama has a problem. Her husband has been unable to provide her  
with a child. Fortunately for her, she's found a solution to this problem.

Amalla Su has a problem. She's married to a man who's too focused on the battlefield  
and not on providing the needed heir for the Kingdom of Molmol. Fortunately for her,  
she's found a solution to this problem.

Keitaro Urashima has a problem. He's about to receive some guests who think he's the solution  
to all of their problems.

---------------------------  
Prologue: Planting the Seed  
---------------------------

Life is a Grand Cosmic Irony. Few people realize this of course, since they tend to be the direct victims  
of said irony and have no time to reflect on just how they got there in the first place.

However Tsuruko Aoyama was one of those dubiously lucky few. She had first realized this startling truth  
several years ago. To be quite precise, on her wedding night. Or rather what was supposed to have been  
one. Her spouse was handsome, kind, intelligent and loving. Perfect in almost every way. Except one.

Naturally upon discovering this little shortcoming she'd reacted in a perfectly sensible and mature fashion.

Fortunately for him, she used the back of the blade when she blasted him through the roof.

Even though she eventually forgave him, the damage had been done. Under other circumstances an anullment  
or divorce would not have been out of the question. Unfortunately for them both, family politics made any  
option along those lines unfeasible. With various internal factions striving for control over the family's   
extensive holdings and heritage, the only way to keep the vultures and jackals at bay was to present  
a solid and united front towards them.

Which of course had finally led Tsuruko into this predicament.

She had been married for three years now after all, and tongues were starting to wag freely about  
the fact that their union had not produced a child in all that time. Quiet whispers at first, but   
growing increasingly louder of late. Never directly within range of Tsuruko's keen hearing of course.  
The opposition was greedy and stupid, not suicidal.

But something had to be done about it, and done quickly.

While they had managed to keep her spouse's 'little problem' a secret, the fact remained that without  
a direct heir from her loins the line of succession for the God's Cry School and the responsibilities  
that came with it would continue to rest on the shoulders of her volatile younger sister Motoko.

Tsuruko needed no crystal ball to forsee that that path would end badly. Motoko was too open, her inner depths  
as clear and easy to read as a pure mountain spring. As well drop a helpless chick down a hungry snake's gullet  
as let such a straightforward innocent like her sister into reach of the waiting fangs of the 'progressives'  
who only wanted to sell off what generations of Aoyamas had defended with blood, sweat and pain.  
They would easily twist her naive little sister around their plotting fingers, binding her honor  
with cleverly sharpened words before stripping it all away and leaving nothing but a hollow shell behind.

No, while Motoko might yet fulfill her potential to become one of the best swordmistresses their school had seen  
in generations, she was ill-suited for the task of leading the entire Clan. But unless Tsuruko bore a child before  
Motoko's 20th birthday, the line would be passed on to her sister once she was legally recognized as an adult.  
And while Tsuruko could try to contest that claim, she knew with a grim certainty that the end result would be  
a power struggle that could end up splitting the family into various weakened factions to the detriment of them all.

And perhaps more importantly to herself at least, Tsuruko desperately wanted a child of her own to nurture and cherish.  
Her chest ached whenever she saw a baby these days. Her keen mind's eye found it all too easy to substitute a feature  
here and there to show her what might have been had Fate not played such a cruel jest with her marriage.

_'And now we come to the cusp of the matter,'_ she reflected bitterly.

She knew that there were modern means of artificial conception, but such would not help her situation.  
While rich in lands and prestige the Aoyamas had never been wealthy as Westerners counted such things.  
And the few discrete inquiries she'd made in that direction had merely confirmed what she'd already suspected.  
There was no way to use such a clinic and not get caught. They required identification, medical records  
and payments too large to make without liquidating assets that would draw unwanted attention. Her best efforts  
might keep it secret for a few weeks at best, but any determined investigation would collapse that house of cards   
sooner or later. And the Opposition was very determined to find something to bring her side of the family  
down in disgrace.

_'If only...'_

If only her younger sister could have been a little more wiser and trustworthy.  
If only Motoko's relationship with Urashima had been real instead of a lie.  
If only her husband had not kept the truth from her before they had wed.  
If only she had met Urashima before...!?

Tsuruko's train of thought derailed as she suddenly realized the unexpected direction those same thoughts  
had trailed off towards and the first faint glimmers of a truly outrageous plan began to form.

_'Their eyes are similar in shade, almost the same hair color...'_

It could work. More importantly, it had to work for the all of their sakes.  
Even if her own sister might think of this as yet another betrayal, she had to try.

_'Forgive me, Motoko. But I will do what I must, even at the cost of your love,  
for the sake of those who came before us and those who will come after.'_

She laid one hand lightly on the white uwagi cloth covering her tight flat stomach.

_'Urashima should have no complaints of me. And he himself is not unattractive either.'_

Tsuruko mentally brought up the memory of the last time she'd seen him into clear focus,  
it had been at the train station where Narusegawa and Motoko had taken Urashima with  
them back to the Hinata Sou. He had been so cutely flustered at that time,  
caught in the middle between the two interested parties.

_'I believe I will find this family duty most enjoyable.'_

Smiling faintly to herself, she began to pack for her trip.

-End Prologue: Planting the Seed-


	2. Prologue II: Rocking the Cradle

Problem Solving  
by Shade

Disclaimer: Love Hina is the creation and property of Ken Akamatsu

Note: Because I can, that's why!

-------------------------------  
Prologue II: Rocking the Cradle  
-------------------------------

"Won't you come to bed, darling?"

Now upon hearing such a sultry purring invitation coming from the curved platinum blonde  
reclining seductively on the bedcovers in her filmy white peek-a-boo nightie, most hetrosexual  
males with a pulse would have wasted no time before accepting the offer with all due haste.

"Not right now, dear."

Prince Lamba Lambda Lambda Luu wasn't one of them. Immersed as he was in a thick  
volume of historical military engagements, he completely missed the look of frustrated  
exasperation that his beautiful young wife Amalla shot at him.

Marriage to her childhood sweetheart had not turned out as expected for her royal highness.  
He was handsome, kind and apparently had no interest at all in making love to his sexy bride   
until they both passed out from exhaustion. Their honeymoon had been at a military base  
for heaven's sake! Lamba had spent the entire time inspecting and drilling with the troops.  
It was enough to make Amalla question her own desirablity as a woman.

Just what exactly did she have to do to get her husband's attention? Were her bountiful breasts  
too large, or was it her swaying hips, or her long silky mane of shimmering silver hair?  
Was that why he'd originally wanted to marry her younger sister Kaolla?

Resigning herself to yet another night alone in bed, Amalla burrowed under the silk sheets until her  
temptingly displayed body was hidden from view. She blew a puff of air out, this was getting her nowhere  
fast. In six months of marriage, not once had she experienced the much gossiped about 'joys of the marriage bed'.   
The royal bodyguards had seen more action then she had, for crying out loud! And they were all lesbians!

Not for the first time, Amalla wondered if she had made a mistake. After the almost-seduction/marriage  
with Keitaro Urashima who she'd mistakenly brought back to MolMol in place of Lamba, she'd been under  
the impression that her hubby would find her equally arousing. Though without the nosebleeding,  
screams of terrified apology or mad dashes for freedom from the royal bed.

Her smooth brow crinkled as she frowned. Had her devilish little sister palmed the lemon on her while  
hogging the ripe juicy banana for herself? Why she could just picture it now...

_'Under the light of the red moon, Kaolla enthusiastically bouncing up and down on her shibari bound  
and gagged landlord. Her hands teasing his nipples and running along his chest as she rides him  
like a bucking wild elephant. Filthy phrases describing her sensual pleasure erupting from her  
panting mouth as she turns to look right at Amalla and pulls her eyelid down and then sticks her   
tongue out to show her sister who's won...' _

Amalla awoke with a start. For a moment she couldn't remember where she was.  
It was dark in the royal bedchamber except for where the pale light of the  
crescent moon entered from the balcony window.

As she sat upright, the princess noticed that one hand had somehow become lodged between  
her legs and inside the front of the MolMol style panties. While extracting it Amalla winced  
as she accidently brushed her still sensitive and throbbing core. It seemed she couldn't even  
find relief in her dreams anymore. That had been the third erotic fantasy involving her husband's  
clumsy Japanese doppleganger this week.

She saw that Lamba had decided to sleep on the oversized plush couch in their room again.  
The first and only time he had ever joined her under the covers he'd spent the whole night  
with the lamp on by his side reading a text on ancient MolMol poetry.

How could two men who looked so alike be so different?

Amalla sighed softly as she sank back under the blankets. Maybe tomorrow would bring  
better results. There was still plenty of time to get closer to one another.

And with that hopeful thought in mind, she drifted off to sleep.

----------------------

"WHAT? You're leaving?!"

"Of course, dear. Every capable male of age must complete their mandatory service with  
the military. Not even the royal family is exempt from the law, you know that."

"But it's five years!"

"I'm sure the time will pass before you know it. And I won't be on duty all of the time,  
I'll be back for the holidays and celebrations."

"But-but-but..." she stammered. She would be OLD by then! How could he do this to her?!

"Amalla?"

"But what about the succession?!"

"Oh that. Don't worry about it. The stork will undoubtedly provide us with a wonderful  
son or daughter from the cabbage patch."

That final revelation about Lamba's concept of where babies came from proved to be too much  
for the already shocked princess. Her eyes rolled back in her head and she collapsed in  
a dead faint on the floor.

------------------------

Amalla awoke to find herself back in bed. For a moment she wondered if it had all been  
only a bad dream. But then she saw one of the Royal Guards standing by her bedside looking  
anxiously down on her.

"Your Highness. The Prince brought you back here after you fainted. The Royal Physician  
has been summoned as well and should be here soon."

"Hikari, where is my husband?"

The tanned bodyguard suddenly looked uncomfortable, her dark dreadlocks seeming  
to wilt under the hard stare being given to her by the royal person she had sworn  
fealty to.

"He departed as soon as he had summoned me to watch over you, Princess."

"Where did he go?"

"I do not know, Highness. But he did leave a note addressed to you."

Hikari needed no prompting to hand that over to Amalla without delay as the look  
in her mistress's eye was only one step down from bloodthirsty homicide.

Amalla snatched the folded piece of paper and opened it up to reveal Lamba's neat  
and formal script.

She had to read through it twice before the words finally started to sink in.

"Princess?"

"Out. Now."

The hardened bodyguard fled hastily. When any of the women in the royal family started  
talking in monosyllables, it was as clear a warning as the tide retreating out before  
the tsunami hit and held much of the same meaning.

Alone in her quarters, Amalla Suu crushed the farewell letter left by her husband  
into a small crumpled unrecognizable mass in one hand. He had gone too far this time.  
Unfortunately for her treasured dreams of vengence, Lamba was going to be out of her  
reach for awhile.

She hated to admit it, but her mother had been right after all. The Queen had always  
opposed a union between either of her daughters and Lamba. Amalla had always thought  
it was just jealousy until the day she'd accidently brought Keitaro back instead.

The still youthful looking Naolla had taken a few moments to size up her daughter's  
catch before giving her a thumbs up and pronouncing her verdict.

_"Amalla dear, don't let this one go. Tie him up and do your best to fuck him  
to death. You won't succeed, but the attempt will definitely be worth it."_

Well now she was finally going to take her mother's advice.

Better late then never.

-End Prologue II: Rocking the Cradle


End file.
